Pike and Shot

[ArizonaTank]

Pricing is important....for me anyway.  I never bought the original game because it just seemed expensive for the feature set. 

However, Campaigns is just right in the price / feature mix: IMHO.  I didn't get it for $6, but picked it up for $35.  It is still a great game at that price. 

Now, if they will just do something about the price of Brother against Brother.

[Rayfer]

Does the new Campaign game contain the complete first release as well?

[jomni]

Does the new Campaign game contain the complete first release as well?

Yes. And the expansion too.

[Philippe]

There is a compelling reason for buying Pike and Shot Campaigns even if you already own Pike and Shot which I will attempt to articulate.

Pike and Shot Campaigns will become the base game for Pike and Shot, and will be the one getting all of the patches.

It also has, if I am not mistaken, a lot more army lists available for scenarios, and I wouldn't be surprised if more were on the way.

This is important because what makes this game really shine is the scenario-modding community that has grown up around it.

I will admit to having been a bit lukewarm about the game in the begining, but when I saw the raft of detailed scenarios by competent designers that started coming out, I had an early days Combat Mission flashback and realized that what I wanted from the game that the base game wouldn't provide, the independant scenario designers could and would provide in spades.  I still remember putting together a compendium of scenarios for the old Combat Mission and being blown away by the quantity and quality of user-made scenarios.  That same thing is happening in Pike and Shot, and as user-made scenarios start getting made for army lists that only show up in Campaigns, I suspect those scenarios will only work in Pike and Shot Campaigns rather than the original Pike and Shot.

I think we've been given a hint of the kind of army lists that may be coming out in future patches by one of the campaigns in Pike and Shot Campaigns.  One of the campaigns in Campaigns is late 17th century.  If patches extend the army lists to that period, it opens up a lot of fascinating battles from the second half of that century (but I'm still talking about pre-Malborough warfare).  And even if there aren't any official scenarios covering battles from that period, those army lists will be jumped on by scenario designers.

So that in itself is enough reason to buy Campaigns.  To my warped point of view the campaigns are a lot of fun, but are sort of a consolation prize for having to get a new base game.

[tgb]

Yeah, but for people who already own the base game it's only $6, and for those of us who didn't up until now, it was still less than the original + DLC.  If the plan was to bring in new owners, I think it worked.

BTW, I installed your music mod and really like it a lot.

[Nefaro]

At the price, it's a no-brainer.

[Zulu1966]

This would make a good engine for medieval battles - a severely under represented field in computer wargaming

[Nefaro]

This would make a good engine for medieval battles - a severely under represented field in computer wargaming

You're right.  It would be pretty cool if they had one with a campaign system like this.  I wonder if they're making another one with this engine, in a different period.

Of course, I would also buy one set in the Classical period.  I can never get enough of those.  While I enjoyed FOG for a bit it's just one-off battles, the results can seem a bit too random at times and, most importantly, the single-player AI is easy to beat.  There is also the big issue of all the high-priced DLC that requires a large investment to own.  I never bought any due to the expense (and the lack of AI challenge), but this engine could do a better job IMO.

[Cyrano]

Development route here will indeed be interesting.

Two Historicons ago, Ian told me the plan was for FoG:Napoleonics (makes the most sense honestly) and then to work towards the FoG: Ancients re-boot to bring it to this standard.

Curious what the choice will be in the end, but glad to see this one coming from humbler beginnings and really at least starting to thrive.

[jomni]

All custom scenarios will work on the new version as well, including my mod.

The only sad part is that P&S Campaigns is not compatible with the iPad version.
The devs claim that Apple does not want to accept 32bit programs anymore and rewriting to 64bit may be too much work.
So one needs the old P&S to play mulitplayer with iPad.  This divides the mulitplayer community.  So it might be worth keeping both versions.

Rest assured, there will be other eras in the works based on by dealings with Byzantine Games.

[Grim.Reaper]

The devs claim that Apple does not want to accept 32bit programs anymore and rewriting to 64bit may be too much work.

It's true....new rules for Apple apps

https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=12172014b

[RooksBailey]

I've been rather proud of only having purchased one game so far this year (and backed Shadowrun: Hong Kong), but I have to say that this game is calling me for some reason.  Reminds me of Frozen Synapse in that it seems packed with replayability, what with the skirmish generator and the PBEM opportunities. 

I might break my gaming fast for this one.   O:-)

[Philippe]

What makes the game stand out is the degree of developer involvement in user-made scenarios. 

A new scenario comes out every couple of weeks or so.  These tend to be as good as anything the game was released with or better, and everything gets the once-over by the developer to make sure that it's compatible with the game and the game's servers. 

That's a far cry from a game where scenarios are being constructed without developer consultation or supervision, and where you never really know what you're downloading. What it means in practise is that the game is always steadily increasing in size and variety, even when there are no new releases coming out.

I don't know what's being cooked up for the next expansion, but the evolution of the game doesn't seem to have ended.  There were a lot of colorful 17th century wars before the age of Marlborough in eastern and northern Europe.

And don't forget the fact that the AI can be extremely (sometimes embarassingly) robust.

[tgb]

One thing I really like about it is the way c &c sometimes breaks down when your units go into a killing frenzy.  It can be frustrating as hell when one of your best guys rushes headlong into half a dozen AI controlled pike & shot units, but it's always entertaining. And, from what I understand, historical.

[Father Ted]

I might break my gaming fast for this one.   O:-)

For me it was more a case of a wafer-thin mint...but I did it anyway.